The Workout - Feed Me a Stray Cat

The "pop-core" genre seems to have fallen under the music industry's devilish spell of becoming generic. The Workout take a stab at something that would've been creative even last year, however, at this point, so many of the bands in this genre sound the same, it's come to the point that they can't be told apart. It's unfortunate that this happens for some of these bands; it just seems that it's too late for others.

With that said, the songs presented here aren't necessarily bad, they just don't bring anything new, different or creative to the table: using electronic beats and other instruments with pop sensibility, then turning into a band that takes no prisoners with vicious (and sub-par) screaming; vocally, the band isn't so bad, as The Workout mirrors that of The Wonder Years. The one thing that I feel may have the power to set them apart from the rest of the pack is the way that the play guitars. While most bands in the genre stick to basic chords and rhythm patterns during the screaming breakdowns, The Workout change it slightly by using guitar lines as opposed to riffs, so it sounds more like they would be soloing. If they can utilize that in future releases, they may be able to break free from the chains holding them back from moving up in the industry.

The only thing that I enjoyed about the EP was the aforementioned guitar parts in the breakdowns. Other than that, the disc doesn't do anything except fall into the middle of a genre already flooded with copy cats. In today's music industry, I can only hope that a few of these bands make it through, coming out of the burning wreckage that is their genre.